By Emeka Amaefula
ACTING EFCC CHAIRMAN ABDULKARIM CHUKKOL: HOW HE HEADED SOUTH-SOUTH ZONAL HEADQUARTERS PORT HARCOURT
The acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crime Commission-EFCC Abdulkarim Chukkol is a Police Crime detective with special skill in not given in to tolerance to sleazes and compromises of any kind going by how he operated as Head of Operations at South-South Zonal Headquarters Port Harcourt some years back from where he was transferred to Headquarters Federal Capital Territory FCT-Abuja. South-South Zonal Headquarters comprises several Economic hubs of oil and gas businesses with other attendant auxiliary businesses coming with crude oil production and marketing. Here a lot of Financial crime issues involving operators of these businesses remain common including expatriates who undermine Nigeria’s economic activities. EFCC Port Harcourt Office is located few Meters away from Government HOUSE and specifically at Olumeni Street, in the Old Government Reservation Area-OLD GRA as it is popularly called. Any mention that you have a date with EFCC Port Harcourt Office while Abdulkarim Chukkol held sway is like you are already pronounced guilty as charged before arriving at the Eagle-eyed office in the serene white and Red coloured building overlooking Police Recreation Playground Old GRA Port Harcourt.
Petitioners of all kinds are found in the South-South geo-political region with politicians all trying to outdo each other with some kind of petitions that will jostle their political opponents and throw them out of the political space for them to shine at last. But for Policeman Abdulkarim Chukkol, he survived the intrigues and gerrymandering activities of petitioners in Port Harcourt Zonal Command of EFCC.
What many of such petitioners did not understand is that he had been well groomed for the job and given his training in the field of Police Investigation and crime busting activities did give him advantages while he headed South-South EFCC Port Harcourt Headquarters.
It was from Port Harcourt he was transferred to Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja from where he was made Director of Operations Economic and Financial Crime Commission-EFCC. He joined EFCC in 2003 few months after it was established in 2002 until he became Principal Detective Officer and subsequently Director Operations EFCC Headquarters Abuja. THIS WAS EXACTLY 3-YEARS AFTER HE GRADUATED FROM UNIVERSITY OF MAIDUGURI WITH A BACHELORS of Science DEGREE in the year 2000. And he has risen with his eyes on training and retraining having obtained Post Graduate Diploma in Criminal Justice Education from University of Virginia United States of America-USA in 2011. He also studied for Criminal Justice Education at Canadian Police College Ottawa, Ontario Canada. Abdulkarim Chukkol never relent on his quest to acquire higher knowledge on crime detection and prevention as he worked with many international security Agencies such as National Crime Agency in United Kingdom, Queensland Police in Australia and Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI in United States of America-USA where he studied at FBI National Academy Quantico, Virginia USA.
In 2010 he trained United states of America Telecommunications Training Institute Washington D.C with specialization in Cyber Security and Spectrum Monitoring. On Wednesday 14th of June, 2023 he was moved to take over from Abdurasheed Bawa who was suspended from office by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
